Book Review – Butterfly Tattoo by Deidre Knight

Oh boy! What a beautiful, emotional book with a very unconventional love story.

This book is about love and healing. That love can be found anywhere if you let it – no boundaries, no limits. And to accept it wherever and however it comes into your life. And that no matter how bad things get, it is always possible to heal.

I smiled a lot – there were many sweet moments, I squeed once or twice, and I cried several times. The story was deeply emotional and touching. And of course, has a sweet HEA and epilogue 🙂

This book has, honest to god, THE single most complex interconnected family dynamic I have ever read. But I loved it. It just reinforced how little difference a ‘conventional’ family makes. That family is the people you love and who love you – no matter who they are.

The book centers around the story of Rebecca, a former famous actress who, 3 years prior to the start of the book, was attacked by a stalker with a knife and scarred this ruining her career in front of the camera, and Michael, an electrician who works on her building who is bisexual. He was straight his whole life until he met, fell in love with, and married Alexander with whom he had a relationship that spanned over a decade and with whom he had a daughter. A year before the book begins, Alex dies in a car accident leaving Michael and their daughter devastated. When Michael meets Rebecca, he is surprised to feel a connection and longing for her despite having been with a man for the past 10 years. But their growing feelings for each other and the way that Rebecca and his daughter bond draw them closer together, helping all of them to heal from the scars of their past and learn to love again. Taking love from whatever direction it comes from.

I loved how, through Michael’s memories, it almost feels as though his deceased partner Alex is a character in the book. I felt like I knew him as well as I knew Michael, Rebecca and Andrea.

The writing style of the book is beautiful. It really gets right inside the character’s heads. Makes you see the world directly through their eyes.

I loved seeing the characters grow and learn to work through their issues. They were both dealing with horrible, scarring events in their pasts and doing their best to move on.

The book deals with many hard questions. Why do bad things happen? How does one move on after them? Is it alright to love again when the person you’re in love with dies? Does it betray them to love someone else or is there a way of both honoring their memory and accepting someone new and continuing to live ?